Page 100 of Devilish

We waited in the dark until Benoit gave us the signal, and then it was go time.

The power cut had distracted Guard Alpha, and when he turned around as if he were going to check inside the residence, Shep shot off a tranquilizer, hitting him in the ass.

“Direct hit. Very nice,” Benoit commented, but Lachlan growled through the mic and shut that up real fast.

It didn’t take long for Alpha to stumble and fall to his knees, giving Shep the upper hand to knock him out cold with a punch to the jaw. Theo and I stepped over him and slipped inside the front door, guns raised and ready for any sign of movement.

It was pitch black inside, and from somewhere upstairs, I heard a guy yelling, “What the fuck happened to the lights?”

My pulse spiked at the realization that it was probably Rupert, which gave us a location on him—unless he decided to come down here and join us.

With no one to deal with immediately, I helped Shep bring the heavy guard into the house from off the porch while Theo kept watch, his gun trained on the stairs.

The lights came back on suddenly, just as a small thud coming from the back of the house caught my attention. Moments later, Lachlan appeared in the foyer, which meant King had Guard Charlie and would be following the plan of tying him up and stripping him of weapons.

I looked around the space Rupert called home, every light in the place turned on like he was expecting company. Or had a house full of people. Maybe he had expected I would come, but he sure as fuck wouldn’t be expecting my brothers.

As Shep began to bind Guard Alpha, he nodded at us to go on, and we started carefully up the stairs, Lachlan leading the way.

Kai had mentioned his room being on the second floor, and I knew there were no windows for entry that way. We’d haveto bust through to wherever he was, and I hoped like hell that wasn’t the same place as Rupert.

Guns at the ready, we quietly made our way to the second landing, heads on swivels.

We didn’t know where Guard Bravo was, which meant it was likely he was up here somewhere. But that was Theo’s problem.Iwas Rupert’s.

“Stay alert, guys,” Alessio said in our ears. “Hacked into the Wi-Fi, and it looks like you’ve got three more bodies on the second floor.”

“No shit,” I muttered.

“One seems more isolated than the other two. To your left at the far end of the hall. If I had to guess?—”

“Kai.”

“Right.”

My instinct was to go to him and let Lachlan and Theo deal whatever they found to our right, but I didn’t want to risk being jumped and losing the upper hand. We needed to apprehend the target—or annihilate it—thenI could get Kai.

“You want me to take care of this?” Lachlan gestured to the cracked door to our right.

Yes,was my initial thought. But I wasn’t letting Rupert get away tonight without my face being one of the last he saw.

“No. I need to do this.Needto be there.”

Lachlan nodded and started toward the cracked door. We plastered ourselves to the wall behind him, and when he glanced back at Theo and gestured with his fingers to make his move, he confirmed that one of the two men in this room was Guard Bravo.

Theo shifted in front of Lachlan, then, silent as a ghost, slipped inside the room. There was a muffled shuffling through the door, and seconds later a grunt before Theo’s voice came through the mic.

“Bravo down. Safe to proceed.”

Lachlan shook his head. “You all thinkI’mthe danger. His Highness is fucking cutthroat.”

I slid inside the room Theo had disappeared into seconds before, and on the floor at his feet was a man twice his size. He’d been garroted with a dull wire. Theo’s favored weapon.

The one he was currently twirling like one might the tassel of a robe, and I frowned as I looked at the man a second time.

“Dead?”

“He was getting mouthy. Would’ve given us away.”

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